


In Every Tense

by Recycling



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, Gen, Loneliness, family you forge for yourself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-15 21:08:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5800180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Recycling/pseuds/Recycling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey has been, and is, and will be more than she ever knows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Every Tense

Rey was five when her family left her on Jakku. When those long ago faces abandoned her to the mercies of Nima outpost and the repugnant Plutt. When she cried herself to sleep every night, begging them to come back for her. When she vowed to stay as she was forever and wait for them; she knew they _had_ to come back for her. 

Rey was seven when she ran away from Plutt. When she knew she would have to rely on him to buy the odds and ends she scavenged; when she refused to bow to his never ending demands. When she made her home in the abandoned war machine with her doll and her loneliness and her strength. 

Rey was ten when she got into her first fight over her wares. When the scavengers stopped viewing her as a weak child and started seeing her as competition. When she picked up a pole and beat the Teedo unconscious for trying to steal her day’s work. When she walked into Nima with her back straight and more self respect than she ever dreamed of.

Rey was twelve when she started to lose hope. When she cut her hair off in a fit of anger. When she screamed to the endless waste that she was tired of waiting, tired of hurting, tired of fighting day after day. When she dreamt of the ocean and knew in her soul they would come back, and she would be loved.

Rey was fifteen when she found the speeder. When she spent almost a year painstakingly repairing it. When it allowed her to scavenge enough that she wasn’t _always_ hungry. When she explored farther than she ever had before, bringing back treasures for herself alone. When she didn’t need a pilot’s helmet, but something about it made her happy.

Rey was eighteen when she started dreaming of leaving on her own. When she started thinking of finding _them_ and ending this wait. When she started trying to save enough parts to barter for more than daily subsistence. When she started listening at the outpost for tales of planets with oceans and hoping again.

Rey was nineteen when the BB unit found her. When she befriended the rebellion-leader-ex-stormtrooper-big-deal that fought by her side and was the first friend she ever had. When she found unfolded her own soul and found power she never fathomed. When she took a stand and saved the galaxy for the first time.

Rey was twenty when she returned to the Rebel Base. When she brought hope and courage and strength back to the fighters. When she found friends who would die for her as soon as she would die for them. When she set out to end the darkness once and for all.

Rey is twenty one when she faces Ren again. She looks into the eyes of a scared boy who throws himself onto her lightsaber, and thanks her with his final breath. She returns to her friends beaten down and battle weary and they surround her with the warmth she always needed and never knew she could have. She realizes that she alone forged the family she waited for, and she wouldn’t trade them for the entire galaxy. And she will know peace at last. Rey was, and is, and will be.


End file.
